THE multitude and diversity of causes proceeds from the order of divine providence
and arrangement. Supposing an arrangement of many causes, one must sometimes combine
with another, so as either to hinder or help it in producing its effect. A chance
event arises from a coincidence of two or more causes, in that an end not intended
is gained by the coming in of some collateral cause, as the finding of a debtor
by him who went to market to make a purchase, when his debtor also came to market.659659The
example is from Aristotle’s three chapter on chance and fortune (Physics,
II, iv, v, vi), the concluding sentence of which is worth quoting: “Chance (τὸ
αὐτόματον) and fortune (ἡ τύχη) something
posterior to intelligence and natural development: so that however much chance be
the cause of the system of the heavens, intelligence and natural development must
needs be a prior cause, as well of many other things, as also of this universe.”

246

Hence it is said: I saw that the race was not to the swift . . . . but that
occasion and chance are in all things (Eccles
ix, 11) to wit, in all sublunary things (in inferioribus).660660Aristotle
is right in contending that things do happen by fortune and chance; and further
that fortune and chance are relative terms, denoting the unforeseen and unpremeditated
in relation to (human) forethought. But in relation to a perfect providence, an
all-seeing mind, an omnipotent ruler, nothing is fortuitous: everything is foreseen,
allowed for, willed, or at least permitted. Nor are the laws of nature at fault
in a chance event. The same forces, working according to the same laws, forward
man to his destination nine hundred and ninety-nine times, and the thousandth time
they destroy him.

659The
example is from Aristotle’s three chapter on chance and fortune (Physics,
II, iv, v, vi), the concluding sentence of which is worth quoting: “Chance (τὸ
αὐτόματον) and fortune (ἡ τύχη) something
posterior to intelligence and natural development: so that however much chance be
the cause of the system of the heavens, intelligence and natural development must
needs be a prior cause, as well of many other things, as also of this universe.”

660Aristotle
is right in contending that things do happen by fortune and chance; and further
that fortune and chance are relative terms, denoting the unforeseen and unpremeditated
in relation to (human) forethought. But in relation to a perfect providence, an
all-seeing mind, an omnipotent ruler, nothing is fortuitous: everything is foreseen,
allowed for, willed, or at least permitted. Nor are the laws of nature at fault
in a chance event. The same forces, working according to the same laws, forward
man to his destination nine hundred and ninety-nine times, and the thousandth time
they destroy him.